A fire broke out during a wedding in Nineveh governorate, Northern Iraq, in al-Hamdaniya’s Christian community. Within hours, the death toll had risen above 100 people, and over 150 have been injured. Fire extinguishing and rescue operations began soon after the blaze erupted, with victims being transferred to hospitals nationwide to be treated. Authorities expect the death toll to continue rising. Could this latest fire in Iraq have been prevented? And what does it mean for a community that’s only now returning from years of devastation?

In this episode: 

• Julian Bechocha (@JBechocha), English Desk Reporter for Rudaw

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Fahrinisa Campana and Khaled Soltan, with our host Kevin Hirten in for Malika Bilal. Amy Walters, Ashish Malhotra, and David Enders fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

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